To Taste Temptation

Guest Author - Elizabeth Darrach

Hello, and welcome back! Mother Nature is being her usual fickle self this week. Yesterday was hot and sunny, almost like summer, and today is much cooler (which makes me happy), and rain is moving in. Still, until the rain arrives, it's not a bad day to sit outside with a book. Unless you have gardening to do.

This time out, I have the latest from Elizabeth Hoyt, To Taste Temptation (Grand Central). Lady Emeline Gordon is the perfect chaperone for young women, and Samuel Hartley has another reason for engaging her to chaperone his sister: he's investigating the massacre of his regiment in America. Emeline can't resist his request, knowing that he worked with her late brother, but she doesn't intend to get any more involved than guiding his sister and investigating her brother's last days. Sam has suspects, though smoking out the person who betrayed all those soldiers is more challenging than he'd expected, as is remaining untouched by Emeline. Her almost-fiance throws a real crimp in the way of the attraction they feel, too; and the man also happens to be on Sam's suspect list. Emeline and Sam's chemistry is appealing, as is Sam himself. I didn't love Emeline quite as much. Her hang-ups about the proper levels of Society and mingling and marrying to one's station bothered me, though I'm sure they're quite authentic to the period; I just didn't like them. I know I've read other stories with the same sorts of issues, but in this one, her attitude did rub me quite the wrong way. Sam's sister Rebecca is a charming character, and the use of a fairy tale story throughout to parallel Sam and Emeline's story is novel. This one isn't a keeper for me, but was pleasant enough. Emeline's issues kept me from loving this one, I'm afraid, despite Sam's rough charms, so this one has earned only three of Cupid's five arrows.